To [[Federalist]] president [[John Adams]], relations with France posed the biggest problem. After the execution of [Robespierre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre) and the end of the [[Reign of Terror]], the French wrote a new constitution that backed away from the democratic ideals of the revolution and a five-man committee called the [Directory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Directory) ruled France from 1795 to 1799. The Directory was continually at war with coalitions of enemies including the Ottoman Empire, Austria, Prussia, and the Kingdom of Naples. Great Britain was a constant foe and France issued decrees stating that any ship carrying British goods could be seized on the high seas. In practice, this meant the French targeted American ships, especially in the [[Caribbean]] where the United States supplied British sugar islands. France voided its 1778 treaty with the United States and the French and Americans waged an undeclared war from 1796 to 1800, with France seizing 834 American ships. President Adams urged the buildup of the U.S. Navy, which had consisted of only a single ship at the time of his election in 1796.  In 1797, President Adams dispatched envoys to negotiate terms for peace. The French foreign minister, [Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Maurice_de_Talleyrand-P%C3%A9rigord), told the Americans that to begin negotiations, the United States would have to repay all outstanding debts owed to France, lend France 32 million guilders (Dutch currency), and pay a £50,000 bribe. News of the French attempt to extract a bribe, known as the [[XYZ Affair]] turned American public opinion against France. Federalists seemed to have been correct in their assessment of France, while the [[Democrats|Democratic-Republicans]] had been misled. At about the same time, rumors circulated of a German secret society called the Illuminati, accused of starting the French Revolution and attempting to spread the anarchist-democratic ideals of that revolution to America.  The surge of animosity against France during the undeclared war led Congress to pass several measures that in time undermined Federalist power. These 1798 war measures, known as the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]], claimed to increase national security. The Alien Act and the Alien Enemies Act gave the president the power to deport new arrivals who appeared to be a threat to national security. The act expired in 1800 with no immigrants having been deported. The Sedition Act, however, was directed against U.S. citizens and imposed up to five years’ imprisonment and a massive fine of $5,000 on people convicted of speaking or writing “in a scandalous or malicious” manner against the government of the United States. Twenty-five men, all politicians from the opposition party, were indicted under the act, and ten were convicted. One of these was Congressman [[Matthew Lyon]], Democratic-Republican representative from Vermont, who had launched his own newspaper, *The Scourge Of Aristocracy and Repository of Important Political Truth*. The Sedition Act attacked the freedom of the press provided under the [[First Amendment]]. Democratic-Republicans argued that the acts proved the Federalists’ intent to squash individual liberties enlarge the powers of the national government to crush states’ rights. [[Jefferson]] and [[James Madison|Madison]] led the response to the Adams administration’s laws in statements known as the [[Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions]], which argued that the acts were illegal and unconstitutional. These resolutions introduced the idea of nullification, described as the right of states to ignore acts of Congress. The ideas introduced in these resolutions would later become central in the fight over slavery. The undeclared war with France ended in 1800, when President Adams was able to secure the [Treaty of Mortefontaine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_of_1800). His willingness to engage in talks with France divided the Federalist Party, but the treaty reopened trade and ended the French practice of taking American ships on the high seas. ---- Next: [[9.3 - 1800 Election]] Back: [[9.1 - Partisans]]